Sorting a matrix based on another matrix

I have a csv file with the first two columns being names of individuals and their teams (both of which are strings) and the rest of the columns being a bunch of performance numbers (integers). I used readtable to import the data as it contained both strings and numbers. This is a 20x8 table called 'drivers'.

I then split the table into a 20x2 cell array called 'driver_names' for the names and teams, and a 20x6 double called 'driver_data' for the numbers.

I then did a few different operations on driver_data. What I need to do next is sort both driver_names and driver_data based in ascending order based on one column of driver_data but I'm not able to figure out how to do this.

Parts of the code are as such:

drivers = readtable("Drivers.csv","NumHeaderLines",1);
for j = (1:size(drivers,1))
        driver_names(j,1:2) = drivers{j,1:2};
        driver_data(j,:) = drivers{j,3:size(drivers,2)};
end

For now, I have sorted driver_data like this:

driver_data = sortrows(driver_data,2)

[Stephen23]

Simpler without the loop:

driver_names = drivers{:,1:2};
driver_data = drivers{:,3:end};

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

[driver_data,idx] = sortrows(driver_data,2);
driver_names = driver_names(idx,:);

[Keerthi Krishna]

Thank you, worked perfectly.

Just so I can learn, could you explain how exactly this works? I'm fairly new to MATLAB so it would be helpful

[Stephen23]

The second output of SORTROWS is explained here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/double.sortrows.html#bt8bwzx-1-index

Indexing is explained here (and other places):

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/math/array-indexing.html

https://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/articles/matrix-indexing-in-matlab.html

The code sorts DRIVER_DATA exactly as you did, obtains the sort index, and uses that index to sort the rows of DRIVER_NAMES. Indexing is one of MATLAB's super powers, you need to learn how to use it.